Volts able to depend on diligent Duffy

Jacob Duffy.
Jacob Duffy.
You do not get to celebrate when your team has been flogged by 134-runs.

But Jacob Duffy can take some quiet satisfaction from his effort in Otago's record loss to Canterbury on Thursday night.

The 23-year-old took five for 39 to claim his second five-wicket bag in the format.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes stole Duffy's sunshine with a rollicking innings of 93 flayed from just 47 balls. He helped Canterbury post a colossal score of 217 for nine.

Otago folded meekly for 83 in what was a record defeat for any team in the tournament's history.

Any personal pride Duffy was feeling needed to be pushed down nice and deep until such time as everyone in the Otago camp was allowed to smile again.

The right-arm seamer had a tough season last summer. He made the courageous decision to remove himself from competitive cricket to work on his action following encouragement from his coach, Rob Walter.

It was potentially a risky move. Someone else could have emerged and taken his spot.

But Duffy worked diligently to make the necessary adjustments and it has been worth it. He is Otago's leading wicket-taker in the Plunket Shield this season with 18 wickets at an average of 23.44, including two five-wicket bags. He has further six wickets in the one-day competition.

''Last year was a frustrating year and it was tough to go through that whole process,'' Duffy said.

''But I put a lot of faith in Rob and Anton [Roux, Otago assistant coach] and things are starting to pay off now which is quite nice.''

Duffy picked up a few bad habits while trying to generate some extra pace from his action two winters ago. He was falling away to the leg side in his follow through and his wrist was in a bad position as well.

He stopped being able to swing the ball and his accuracy slipped.

''Now I've got my shape back and I'm putting the ball where I actually want to put the ball. That's the main thing.''

He is bowling a lot taller at the crease and focusing on hitting a good line and length and not trying to bowl too fast.

''If you make it hard for them to get runs then they have to take risks and that suits my bowling style. I'm not overly fast so I'm not going to blast through a team.

''Trying to bowl too fast is what got me in this mess in the first place so as long as I'm not a powder puff I don't really care how quick I'm bowling.''

Otago's next twenty20 assignment is against the defending champion, Wellington, at the University Oval tomorrow. Otago will name its side today.

Black Caps left-armer Neil Wagner is expected back and he is likely to be joined by Duffy, with Warren Barnes, Jack Hunter and Matt Bacon competing for the other pace-bowling spots.

Wellington played the Knights last night, winning by 32 runs, and barring injury will probably field the same side.

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